Apparatus for teaching reading



March 26, 1929, F. M, STADE'R 1,706,550

APPARATUS FOR TEACHING RELDIIICTy Filed oct. 4, 1926 Patented 'Max'. .#26, 192.9. c l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FLORENCE I. STADER, OI' PLYMOUTH, MICHIGAN.

Arrm'rus Fon TEAcrrING READING.

. Applicationled October 4,' 1926. Serial No.,139,447.

This invention relates to the teaching of reading and particularly relates to apparatus for such teaching.

It is an object of theinvention to provide 5' for automatically displaying to a pupil or a class of pupils a word, phrase or sentence 4for a brief interval of time and then auto- A' Another object is to arrange a considere able number of words, phrases or sentences in a series upon a suitable web, andto provide means for effecting a periodic step-by-Step advance of said web, for the purpose of individually displaying each line of reading matter for a suitable interval of time through a slight opening in a casing containing-the we Still another object is to provide a'suitable means for regulating the rate of intermittent travelof the web and to associate with said means an indicator which may be used in determining the proficiency grade of the pupil or class.

A further object is to provide for utilizaA tion lof the same motive power which drives ca take-up .roller to which the web is normally 30 intermittently advanced to also drive a supply roller for the purpose of rewinding the web thereon, and to provide automatic means for transferring the application of power from one to the other of said rollers at the proper time.

These and various other objects the invention attains by the construction hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig.y 1 is a front view of the casing of the improved apparatus, the front wall of saidV casing being shown partially broken away to disclose parts of the drive mechanism.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken upon the line 2-2 of Fig. l, showing the spring motor and a drive connection from the shaft of said motor to a'counter shaft. l

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken ,upon the line 3-3 of Fig. 1,-showing the drive from the motor shaft to the shaft of thetakeup roller and further showing an 'automatic clutch control.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken upon the line 4-4 of Fig. 1, showing a provision for effecting a rewind drive of the delivery roller. 4

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken upon the line 5 5 of Fig. 3, additionally illustrating the automatic clutch control means'.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary bottom view taken upon the li'ne 6-,6 of Fig. 1, showing the speed regulator and indicator.

In these views, the reference character 1 designates a casing, preferably rectangular, yhaving in its front wall 2 a horizontally elongated sight opening 3. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the front casing Wallis employed as a door, being hinged to the casing top as indicated at 4. Within said casing an elongated web 5, formed of any suitable .flexible material, is arranged to travel normally from a supply roller 6 in the top portion of the casing toa take-up roller 7i adj acent-to the casing bottom. AA portion of said web.y between said rollers is maintained in close proximity to the sight opening 3 by a pair of guide rods 8 arranged respectively above and. below said opening. Upon 'the front face of said web is printed a series of sentences (or words or phrases), as best appears in Fig. 1, and the same are vso spaced lengthwise of the web that they may be suc- A I cessively individually displayed through the opening 3 responsive to a step-by-step actuation of the web.

' Describing now the drive to the take-up roller, 9 designates a mutilated gear loosely mounted upon a shaft 10 counter to the shaft 11 of the take-up roller and adapted to mesh with a pinion 12 fast upon the last-named shaft. The teeth of the gear 9 are distributed thereon' in spaced groups, so that when said gear is constantly driven, its grou s of teeth will act in succession to effect de nite angular advances of the pinion v12 and cor-responding linear advances of said web. In the intervals between such advances the web -will remain stationary, these intervals being established by travel of the untoothed portions of the gear 9 past the pinion 12. provision for clutching the gear 9 upon `the maindrive shaft 10 will presently be described. A motor of any. suitable type may be employed to drive the shaft 10, as for example the spring motor 13, which as is best shown in Figs. 1 and 2 .is arranged adjacent to an end wall of the i mounted `upon the roller 6. The ratios (between the gearsy of said train is such as to drive the roller 6 through a large number of revolutions for each driving revolution of the shaft 10. It follows that the rewindingopveration will be accomplished quite rapidly as compared to the stepy-step advance of the web .to the take-up roller.

1 take-.up roller .when

between' the two loosely There will now be describeda provision for automatically cutting o ff the drive to the winding of, the web thereon has been' completed, and for, at that time, establishing a rewind' drive tothe delivery roller. Upon the main drive shaft 10,

14, there is splined a double acting clutch member 18 both. ends thereof being toothed to provide for alternative driving engage.

mentof said member with clutch elements '19 and 20, respectively rigidly carried by' sald gears 9 and 14. .A substantially upright shift lever 21, the mid portion of wh1ch operatively engages said clutch memberv 18, has its lower portion of the casing (see Fig. 1), and a coiled end L.pivoted upon a bracket 22 in the lower spring 23 acts upon said 'lever to normally maintain engagementrof said clutch member with the clutch element 19 which is carried by the gear 9. The lever 21 terminates'at itsy upper endbelow and close adjacent to the rim portion oa wormwheel 24 journaled in j a pair of bearings 25 p ojecting from the rear 1 wall of the casingv 2, t wheel being preferably vertical. Said wormwheel has driven engagement with vaworm 26- fast upon'a shaft 27 counter to the-"drive shaft 10, and a continuous drive-from the latter shaft to said counter-shaft is established through a` pair of gears 28 and 29. Since ,there .a speed redueingratio between the gears -28 and 29 and since the worm in driv- Alng the Worm-wheel eiects a very considerab 'e speed reduction," it follows that agreat many revolutions of the vshaft I0 will be required to effect a single revolutionyof the worm-wheel. The arrangement is suchthat the shaft 10, inproducing 011e revolution-of said worm-wheel, make's avsuiicient number of turns to accomplish a complete windi of the-web upon the take-up roller and to su se-- quently' accomplish the relatively .high-speed .operation of rewindin'g the .web lpon the Supply roller. Upon the under. vface'of the' v the clutch member 18 to worm-wheel, adjacent to its periphery, there is carried a circumferentially extended cam member 3U, which is adapted, through turning of' the `worm-wheel, to' `encounter the upper end of the lever 21, and toshift said lever from'the full line positions shown in', z 60 Fig. 1 Atothe dash lineposition shown in'said ligure. The leverv when thus actuated slides e shaftlO to the gear 9and estabtrain 14, 15, 16, 17 hasbeen to thetake-up roller'. mounted gears 9 and axis ofv said worm-a the right, as seen in Fig. y1 cutting v olf the driving connection from lishing such Va connection tothe gear 14:. The es timing is such that shifting of `the lever 21 by the cam member 30 occursljust as the normal or take-up travel-fof. the web iscompleted, and the circumferential extent of such cam is such that it releases the lever only .7o

when the' high-speed' drive through the gear prolonged slum-2 ciently to lully rewind the we `upon the sup-v ply roller 6. 'Immediately upon release. oni` said lever bythe vcam member 30, the'spring 75 23 returns the lever to its normal right-hand position (see Fig. 1), reestablishing the drive A suitable provision is made for selectively regulating the rate of periodic advance of, 8@V

the web to the take-up roller. As one exemplication of such a provision, there is mount- A ed fast upon the shaft 10a brake which is drum 31 screw 33 having engagementv with a feednut interiorlysecuredl to thel bottom of the casing. .Said screw has its lower portion projecting below the casing and is terminally x provided with 'an actuating knob 35 or the 9@ like. It ispreferred to mountlupon saidknob 36 which travels below an arcuate a pointer scale of Iig'ures 37, coacting with said scale to form an indicator of the speed of travel a `Sullicient braking to the proficiency of the pupil .or class using the apparatus.

pupil or'jclass may be required to recite said lsentence or possibly ,to capy the same wrltlng." As from day to ay the. pupil-or class becomes more prolicient,- thespeed at advancede'may be corre- 110 spondlngly increased, so: as to shortenjthe which the web" is periods of display of eahsentence. Y. The in` dlcator comprised by the pointer. '36 and the scale 37 will enable the instructor to accu` rately'anddefinltely determine the speed of 115 the lntor, periods of pends.

While upon which speed the length of the useof a vmotorofone form or lanother isv to be preferred, it is evident that 120 the essentials of the described machine might also be embodied in an4 apparatusdepending upon a manual application' o f power. The. invention is submitted as covering such an alteration and any other such modications as come within the scope of the appended-` claims. i l

Either or both of the rollers 6 and 7 may .xngageable by a brake shoe y32 carthe upper end of an adjusting 85 ciently withdrawn 1from the brake 10o 31 to establish a travel of .the web 5 toward its take-up roller at a speed suitable As each sentence is briefly v. displayed through the 'ght opening 3', the 105' display of the reading matter de? Q interval between successive advances of the' web.

It will be noted that the sentences on the web are shown so spaced as to provide for the appearance of a blank portion of the web opposite the sight opening after each display of a sentence. This provides for the use ofv action sentences such as close the door, the pupil having opportunity after display of such a sentence, to perform the action when the sentence suggests.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with a pair of rollers and a web mounted upon saidrollers and adapted to wind from either thereof to the other, of a common actuating member for said rollers, means for establishing a periodic stepbystep drive from said actuating member to one of said rollers, and means for alternatively establishing a continuous drive from said actuating member to the other roller. 4

2. The combination with a pair of rollers .and a web mounted upon said rollers and adapted to Wind from either thereof to the other, of a common actuating member for said rollers, a step-by-step drive connection to one of said rollers from said actuating member, a speed-increasing drive connection to the other roller from said actuating member, and a clutch member adapted to selectively establish eitherv of said drive connections.

3. The combination with a pair of rollers and a web mounted upon said rollers and adapted to wind from either thereof to the other, of a common actuating member for said rollers, a drive connection from said actuating member to one of said rollers, a connection for driving the other roller from said actuating member at a relatively high j speed, a clutch for alternatively establishing Veither of said drive connections, means normally holding said clutch yieldably in a posi- "tion establishing the first mentioned drive other, of a common actuating member for said rollers, a connection for establishing a periodic step-by-step drive from said actuating member to one of said rollers, a relatively high speed drive connection from said actuating member to the other roller, a double acting clutch member for alternatively establishin the two said drive connections, means yiel ably urging said clutch member to a position establishing one of said drive connections, a rotary control element for said clutch member, adapted during a portion of each revolution of said member to establish the other of said drive connections, and a drive connection to said rotary control element from said actuating member.

5. The combination with a casing having a sight opening, of a web mounted within said casing for travel across said opening, and carrying a series of lines of reading matter adapted to be individually displayed through said opening by travel of said web, an actuating element for said web, a drive connection for advancing the web step-bystep in one direction to successively register saidlines4 of reading matter with said sight opening, al relatively high-speed drive con- .nection for eEecting a return travel ofa the web, a clutch member coacting with said actuating member to alternatively establish either of said drive connections from said actuating member, according as said clutch member occupies either of two limiting positions means yieldably urging said clutch member to one of said positions, a rotary control element for said clutch member adapted to establish the other limiting position of the .clutch member during a certain portion of each revolution of said control element, and i a speed-reducing drivel connection to said control element from said actuating member.

6. The combination with a casing having a sight opening, of a pair of rollers mounted within said casing, a. web carried by said rollers, adapted for travel across said opening, and carrying a series of lines of reading matter adapted to be individually displayed through said opening by travel of said web, a motor, a connection for driving one of said rollers intermittently from said motor to advance said lines of reading matter successively into registration with said sight opening, a connection for continuously driving the other of said rollers from said motor ata relatively high speed for rewinding the web, and means for alternatively establishing said drive connections:

tion.

FLORENCE M. STADER.

In testimony whereof I sign this specifica- 

